Ekonomi Lokal Mengharapkan Obama

Globalisasi, berbeda dengan yang dikuatirkan LSM, bahwa keuntungan ekonomi mengalir satu arah ke negara maju, dan negara berkembang hanya kena dampak negatifnya. Yang terjadi, ialah bangkitnya China yang telah membanjiri dunia termasuk USA dan Eropa denga produk murahnya. Dan India yang mengalihkan banyak pekerjaan jasa online dari negara maju ke negerinya. Yang terjadi dengan glabalisasi adalah gelombang pengangguran yang dialami negara seperti USA. Berikut ini cuplikan yang menggambarkan tipikal daerah yang mengalami tekanan ekonomi. Mereka berharap agar presiden terpilih Obama dapat memberikan solusi bagi perbaikan ekonomi lokal.

"Utahns hoping Obama plan helps local economy"
January 8th, 2009 @ 6:51pm
By John Daley http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5267488

... Unemployment is at a 26-year high, and Utah isn't isolated from the problem. Today we talked to some people here who are hoping it will: those without jobs.
Claims for unemployment benefits in Utah this past quarter are up 150 percent compared to the same time last year. At Workforce Services today, there was no shortage of folks coming in to file for unemployment benefits or for extensions.
Utah's unemployment rate is 3.7 percent, which is about half of the national number, but many worry things are getting worse.

Job seeker Michael Dupreuy told us, "The last three weeks, I've probably been on 30 different interviews. But right now, people they're just not hardly hiring any place."
Dupreuy says he recently arrived in Utah from Bellingham, Wash. He was working on a crab boat; a well-paying, but seasonal job. When that ended, there were no jobs there, so he came back here where he'd worked a few years ago.
"I really hope Obama helps this economy, because we're really in desperate need right now. We have people who are homeless on the streets, and these people are not homeless by choice. They want work, they just can't find it. People are losing their houses every single day. The economy is just so terrible. Something drastic is going to have to happen real quick to change this economy," Dupreuy said.

Nampaknya tantangan pengembangan ekonomi lokal juga dialami oleh negara maju, dengan situasi yang begitu menekan, karena pengangguran yang tinggi telah terjadi. Formula-formula solusinya tentu spesifik lokal pula. [Risfan Munir]